h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Masai also drink fermented milk, as well as blood. But cos it's fermented, all the lactose turns into summit else. Which is fortunate for them, cos they're lactose intolerant as well. Richard Dawkins discusses this in The Ancestor's Tale. It's cool

A cut finger generally supplies small quantities. Gouts of blood perhaps require different treatment.

Black pudding was 'raw' blood. Is cooked blood.

Still... I'm sure I've come across something.

I've heard of people who pretend to be vampires drinking blood in significant quantities, and gradually building up a tolerance to it. I believe if you drink a lot otherwise there is a gag/vomit reflex.

So, if that's true, then maybe a bit like alcohol. But take it with a pinch of salt because I really can't remember where I found it.

Interesting point Pedro, perhaps the Masai milk mix makes 'em immune.

Bouncy: me too. It was here on h2g2 methinks - perhaps SEx.

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I don't think so, I'm pretty sure they don't produce lactase, and that fermented milk doesn't have lactose in it.

You can get the lactase enzyme at the chemists' - usually in powder form (or at least that's how we get it). It helps the digestion of the milk sugars/lactose in lactose intolerance.

The cow's milk/goat or sheep's milk argument has more to do with the size of the whey and casein (protein) molecules, apparently. This is where the person is unable to tolerate the proteins themselves. To put it very simply and the way it was explained to our daughter by her was that baby cows are the size of grown up people while baby goats and sheep are about the same size as human babies...

Our daughter had the symptoms of both from a very early age. The combination of the bloating, cramps and diarrhoea (lactose intolerance) with the weeping skin lesions and other uncomfortable symptoms ( bovine protein intolerance) were managed with a combination of lactase enzyme, absolutely no 'milk' except soya then goat or sheep cheeses and yogurts.

Thankfully the protein intolerance seems to have resolved I don't know how that works exactly, but she no longer has the skin lesions at all. Amazing considering the one on her knee had not fully healed once in 6 years. I am not sure how that has happened or why. All sorts of possible reasons have been put forward, including hormone changes in puberty, recent chickenpox, and even that it will manifest again as a worse allergy in a different way because 'they don't just disappear, these things'.

We shall have to wait and see...